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‘No Confidence’ Petition Against Superintendent who Banned Dances

The petition filed Monday with SAU16 has 55 signatures of residents in the Exeter Regional Cooperative School District, calling for a vote of "no confidence" in Superintendent Michael Morgan. (Published Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016)

Some parents in a New Hampshire school district are trying to get the superintendent removed from office, saying that his decision to cancel school dances was the last straw.

The petition filed Monday with SAU16 has 55 signatures of residents in the Exeter Regional Cooperative School District, calling for a vote of "no confidence" in Superintendent Michael Morgan.

This comes less than a month after Morgan canceled all High School dances except the prom due to "inappropriate student behavior" like grinding on the dance floor. In several media interviews Morgan referred to the sex assault case at St. Paul's Prep as the tipping point for his decision.

Many who signed the petition tell NECN they feel the comment was out of line and an unfair comparison, but nobody was available Tuesday for an on-camera interview. However, Exeter High senior Anastasia Boisvert was more than willing to express her frustration.

"It sucks, I liked going to dances, I never did anything wrong," Boisvert said.

So, she says she and her friends support the citizens petition.

"I want to sign this thing, I have to go register, because I am 18," Boisvert said.

Superintendent Morgan declined an interview Tuesday, but clarified his comments in a letter sent home to parents last month saying, "I was not making any references about 'student rape' at EHS dances nor comparing our students with those individuals who were involved in that St. Paul's School Case."

There is a public hearing on the citizens petition Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the high school.